Kaedin Averrios-Smith, 5, the son of AT1 Charles Smith of Commander, Airborne Command Control and Logistics Wing at Naval Base Ventura County (NBVC) Point Mugu, glues popsicle stick together to make a bridge as Lt. j.g. Alex Rovinsky of NBVC’s Public Works Department watches. In a few minutes, his bridge would sustain, as Rovinsky put it, “structural failure.”

Photos by Andrea Howry / Lighthouse

Kaedin Averrios-Smith was about to learn an important aspect of civil engineering.

The 5-year-old had just glued some popsicle sticks into place to create his truss bridge, but before the glue had a chance to dry, he ran over to get more sticks.

Undaunted, the boy started over, joining a dozen other kindergartners building girder bridges and truss bridges under Rovinsky’s watchful eye.

Rovinsky, who’s assigned to the Public Works Department at Naval Base Ventura County, answered a call from the Camarillo Youth Center in the Catalina Heights military housing complex to bring an engineering lesson to after-school programs.

“I knew (Director) Brett Lane has been wanting to bring in outside resources to teach the kids different skills sets,” said Rovinsky’s wife, Rebecca, a program lead at the center. So she asked her civil engineer husband, who was eager to stop by.

Rovinsky put together two slide shows for the youngsters — one for the kindergartners, the other for first- to fifth-graders. In both, he talked about suspension bridges like the Golden Gate and arch bridges like the stunning Bixby Creek masterpiece in Big Sur. He also talked about girder bridges, considered the simplest of bridges, and truss bridges — why they’re different and why some are better than others depending on their purpose.

He started by asking, “What is civil engineering?”

“Building things!” one child answered.

“Building big stuff!” another one shouted.

He showed photos of the Egyptian pyramids and Roman aqueducts, explaining that civil engineering dates back to ancient times and that centuries-old structures are not only still standing, they’re still in use.

He showed slides of freeway cloverleafs — answering no when one child asked him, “Did you build that?” — and wastewater treatment plants and skyscrapers.

He pointed out that no matter what’s being built, engineers have to know what type of soil they’re working with so it can support the structure, and they have to use a design that won’t fall apart when people start using it.

Then each youngster built a bridge, some choosing to glue one popsicle stick perpendicularly across two others — creating an “H,” a simple girder bridge.

Others made two long horizontal rows of triangles and inverted triangles — a truss bridge.

“They’re pretty into it,” Rovinsky said as the popsicle sticks began taking shape. “Engineering is really the future with this country.”

He noted that the United States will always need civil engineers to keep up — literally — the nation’s infrastructure.

Rovinsky’s father was a chemist who is now a science teacher, so science has always been a part of his life. As a child growing up in New Jersey, he worked on small projects, then got more serious when he took woodshop classes in high school.

“Working with tools and wood — that’s really what drove me into civil engineering,” he explained.

He studied civil engineering at Rutgers University in New Jersey, then received his Navy commission in March of 2010. He was assigned to Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 40 and is currently finishing up a two-year tour with Public Works. He’ll soon be entering the world of combat engineering.

He’s worked with youngsters before, serving as a judge at an elementary school science fair.

“A lot of those exhibits were very impressive,” he said. “A lot of detail, a lot of thought, went into some of those projects.”

He believes children will fall in love with science if given the opportunity.

“The best thing we can do is to introduce youngsters early to science and technology,” he said. “If they go into those fields, they’ll be helping out our country as a whole.”